Attitudes and Stereotypes & Science Inquiry

Prejudice

a negative attitude toward another person or group formed in advance of any experience with that person or group.

Example:

Cognative Dissonance

an unpleasant psychological state an individual experiences resulting from inconsistency between two or more elements in a cognitive system.

Stereotype

A set of cognitive generalizations (e.g., beliefs, expectations) about the qualities and characteristics of the members of a group or social category.

Discrimination

the unjust and differential treatment of the members of different age, gender, racial and other groups at the individual level and the institutional level that favor certain groups over others and has the effect of restricting opportunities for other groups.

Attitude

A relatively enduring and general evaluation of an object, person, group, issue, or concept on a dimension ranging from negative to positive

Belief

acceptance of the truth, reality, or validity of something, particularly in the absence of substantiation.

Tripartite Model of Attitudes

a theory of attitude structure proposing that an attitude is based on or consists of affective, cognitive, and behavioral components.

• affective= feelings associated with the attitude object

• cognitive= beliefs about attributes associated with the attitude object

• behavioral= past behaviours and future intentions associated with the attitude object.

Strengths

Limitations

Application of Theory

Social Identity Theory

Groups influence their members’ self-concepts and self-esteem, particularly when individuals categorize themselves as group members and identify strongly with the group leading people to favor their ingroup over an outgroup because the former is part of their self-identity.

Strengths

• explains why people tend to feel more empathy towards people they feel are similar to them (ingroup) and less with people who are different (outgroup).

• explains how bias related ingroups/outgroups in society lead to intergroup conflict

Limitations

• theory doesn’t address intergroup conflict caused by competition resources, such as jobs and land.

Application of Theory

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

a theory proposing that people have a fundamental motivation to maintain consistency among elements in their cognitive systems. When inconsistency occurs, people experience an unpleasant psychological state that motivates them to reduce the dissonance.

Strengths

Limitations

Application of Theory

Robber’s Cave Experiment

Strengths

Limitations

Application of Theory

Types of Discrimination

Direct: Someone treated unfairly due to a characteristic they have or believed to have. Intentional

Indirect: Conditions or regulations that apply to everyone end up unfairly disadvantaging people with a particular characteristic. Not intentional.

Causes of Prejudice

1. Social Influence: learn from family, teachers, media

2. Intergroup competition: competition over access to resources, jobs and wealth.

3. Social categorisation: Classification of people into groups based on common attributes

Types of Attitudes

Implicit: a relatively enduring and general evaluative response of which a person has little or no conscious awareness.

Explicit: a relatively enduring and general evaluative response of which a person is consciously aware.

Reducing Prejudice

Intergroup contact: interactions between members of different social groups. Requires you too:

1. Mutual interdependence: Rely on another to meet a shared goal (superordinate goals)

2. Equal status contact: members of all group have equal power and influence

3. Superordinate goals: having shared purpose.

Role of Ethical guidelines

Ensure’s the welfare and rights of participants, both human and non-human, are protected at every stage

Ethics Committee

a group within a hospital or other institution, made up of members from multiple disciplines, that provides a forum for discussion and advice about situations involving ethical issues.

Reliability

the trustworthiness or consistency of a measure, that is, the degree to which a test or other measurement instrument is free of random error, yielding the same results across multiple applications to the same sample.

Increase= Repetition of the investigation

Generalisability

The extent to which results or findings obtained from a sample are applicable to a broader population.

Increase = increasing sample space, unique spread of participants (various features, age, ethnicity etc.)

Ethical Guidelines

Confidentiality: Researchers must keep participants’ personal information private and not disclose without permission.

Informed Consent: Giving participants or guardians full and clear details about study’s aims, procedures, risks. Consent: Participants voluntarily agree to take part based on that information.

Voluntary Participation: Participants must freely choose to participate without pressure or manipulation. For minors, parental or guardian consent is required.

Right to Withdraw: Participants should be able to leave study at any time without penalty, and data should be discarded if they withdraw.

Protection from Harm: Researchers must protect participants from physical and psychological harm during and after study.

Deception: Researchers must not deliberately mislead or withhold important information from participants.

Debriefing: After study, participants must be fully informed about study’s purpose and given emotional support if needed.

Variables

Independant

Dependant

Control

Extreneous: